Hi,
Does anyone know anything about this Sheikh?
I read an article on him recently about his Grand prix Competition,but I can't find any other info.
Is he married? how is he related to Sheikh Mohammed? etc??

I know that he has a beautiful smile :) You can find pictures of him at Getty Images and also on Corbis. Also, you can go to http://www.a1gp.com/home.html and see a movie with him in it talking about his grand prix.

You can see an interview with him on this website http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/37088.html.
I read an interview with him a few months ago that said that he is dyslexic. He is very good with numbers and finances. He considers himself a second-generation educated arab and he hopes that his influence in business will shed a positive light on arabs in the western media. He was educated in England and he has the CUTEST british accent when he speaks english. :)

Shaikh Maktoum was in Australia the other day, promoting his Grand Prix, so I got to see him on the TV and in the newspaper quite a bit. :) kate_mac15, according to one of the society columnists in the Herald Sun, His Excellency is in his late twenties, SINGLE and is the nephew of Shaikh Mohammed. I agree with FranciscanFry that he has a beautiful smile!

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"Yes, that's it; I'm a janitor so I couldn't think of the word "sad". I was gonna say it makes me feel so mop." - The Janitor, on Scrubs

Sheikh Maktoum has become a hot topic in another middle eastern royalty group that I belong to. According to folks in that forum, he is 28 years old, single and was a triathlete. He's totally into racing cars, but I guess at one time he used to race motorcycles. After seeing too many of his friends die from accidents, he gave them up.

Me and My Motors: Sheikh Maktoum
Jane Nottage
Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum al Maktoum, 28, is the nephew of the Crown Prince of Dubai. A committed motor racing fan, he announced last year that he planned to create the A1 Grand Prix series, dubbed the sport's world cup. The first race takes place in SeptemberSheikh Maktoum is one of the world’s richest men and has a car collection to prove it. In a garage the size of a small aircraft hangar in the middle of his desert kingdom he has a Range Rover, a BMW 645, a Ford Exhibition SUV and a Caterham R500.

He drives the BMW to work — which means helping to run a country one-fifth the size of Wales with an GDP of £17 billion. The other cars are for pleasure, including indulging in the local pastime of wadi bashing — driving up and down over sand dunes.

NI_MPU('middle');The sheikh discovered a passion for cars from an early age. “I was driving a car when I was four years old sitting on my father’s lap,” he says. “And I was driving alone in the desert when I was eight. I have always loved the freedom and challenge it represents.”

Of course the sheikh, or Hasher as he prefers to be known (his full title is His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum of Dubai), had fewer obstacles to indulging his passion than most people. As a member of the fabulously wealthy Maktoum family that rules the oil-rich emirate, he more or less had the run of an entire nation. But unlike other members of his family who are better known for their love of four-legged horsepower, Hasher’s interest in cars is showing no sign of abating.

Last year he announced he was setting up a rival to Formula One racing — the sport ruled by another billionaire, Bernie Ecclestone. Hasher believes A1 Grand Prix will bring variety to a sport that is in danger of becoming moribund. The championship will see national teams pitted against one another in identical single-seater cars that, while not as fast as F1 cars, have been designed to provide exciting racing with plenty of overtaking. At least 23 countries are said to be taking part in the series, including Australia, Canada, China, South Africa, Malaysia, Pakistan, Holland and Britain — which will host the first round in September.

The start-up costs have been huge. Hasher and his investors are believed to have paid out £44m and prize money is costing £38m over the first three seasons.

Despite his wealth Hasher says he found it hard to be taken seriously when he was setting up the concept. “It hasn’t been easy. At first everyone thought, ‘Oh no, here comes another rich kid with his tricks,’ but then they sat back and thought about it and realised it was a great opportunity.”

He claims that for him the project has been more than simply a business. “I have always had a passion for speed. I’m an adrenaline junkie. For me, driving is a more natural state than walking.”

His favourite pastime in Dubai is desert driving, taking his huge Ford Exhibition or a souped-up Range Rover to tear around the sands. But he admits that the landscape can become a little monotonous. For the true driving experience he cites Italy. “The roads in Italy from Forte dei Marmi in Tuscany to Florence, Pisa, then up to Milan and around Lake Como are my favourite roads. Unfortunately I haven’t got time to participate in the Mille Miglia [the annual road race in Italy for sports cars built between 1927 and 1957] but when I have more time that would be a cool experience.

“My other favourite roads are in Dubai as they are very good and I can drive fast on them. I don’t like speed limits.” Driving in Britain, however, is not ideal. “The best roads in Britain are the B roads in the countryside,” says Hasher. “Everywhere else there is too much traffic.”

Not that this bothers him to an extreme degree: “I don’t suffer road rage, it’s not worth it. So your journey will take 25 minutes instead of 20 minutes. I don’t see a reason to get worked up about it. If someone does something stupid I get angry for about five minutes and then I let it pass. I’m a pretty sensible driver, fairly calm.”

With the funds to buy any car he wants, there haven’t been many old bangers in the sheikh’s ownership history, although there have still been some incidents. “I had a Jeep Cherokee that blew up once and caught fire when I was driving in Dubai. I’ve also had the usual experiences of changing tyres and running out of fuel — that is something you only do once before you learn the lesson.”

Given his obvious love of cars and the depth of his pockets, it comes as something of a surprise that his own fleet is not even more glamorous than it is.

“What’s the point? How many cars can you drive at once?” he asks indignantly. “I am a businessman. I don’t have a fantasy car. I just drive from A to B in the shortest time.”

If that sounds a little too humble, perhaps it is. Hasher lets slip a little later that a Ford GT is on order and due soon. ON HIS CD CHANGER My taste in music depends on the traffic. In heavy traffic I listen to Enya but on long, empty roads I switch on rock music and increase the tempo. At the moment I have two current hits compilations, one soothing CD, one hard-rocking CD

Is it just me or does anyone else find it strange that Shaikh Maktoum - I mean Hasher :) - calls himself an "adrenaline junkie" and yet listens to Enya? I find that amusing for some reason, maybe because it seems so anomalous...

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"Yes, that's it; I'm a janitor so I couldn't think of the word "sad". I was gonna say it makes me feel so mop." - The Janitor, on Scrubs

Thanks desertrosemrk for the article! it's fantastic! you always come up with the most interesting articles and fantastic pictures
(sounds like you need your own fanclub or something! ha). :)
so now we will call him Hasher. :) ahhh...Hasher.

Your welcome! I just came a cross it by accident; I was looking for some recent pictures of him.

Is it just me or does anyone else find it strange that Shaikh Maktoum - I mean Hasher :) - calls himself an "adrenaline junkie" and yet listens to Enya? I find that amusing for some reason, maybe because it seems so anomalous...

Haha!! I thought that same thing when I read it, but didn't want to say anything! I burst out laughing when I read that he's listening to Enya! HELLO!
this doesn't mean, of course, that i wouldn't date him or anything...it just means that I'D have to chose the music!! :p :)

Haha!! I thought that same thing when I read it, but didn't want to say anything! I burst out laughing when I read that he's listening to Enya! HELLO!
this doesn't mean, of course, that i wouldn't date him or anything...it just means that I'D have to chose the music!! :p :)

I see nothing wrong with it. He said he listen to it when he was driving in traffic and if he is a speed junkie then he used Enya to calm himself down because he gets impatient with the traffic.

I see nothing wrong with it. He said he listen to it when he was driving in traffic and if he is a speed junkie then he used Enya to calm himself down because he gets impatient with the traffic.

Yes, so he's probably very wise then! I like Enya, so don't please don't get me wrong - I thought it was kind of cute, that's why I pointed it out. There should be more adrenaline junkies who listen to Enya!!

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"Yes, that's it; I'm a janitor so I couldn't think of the word "sad". I was gonna say it makes me feel so mop." - The Janitor, on Scrubs

I think that Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum may be the nephew of Sheikha Hind (wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid), and the son of Hind's brother Sheikh Hashar bin Maktoum Al Maktoum (b 1946).

Its True Sheikha Hind is his Anut
But Sheikh Hasher ( sheikh Maktoum Father ) is Sheikh Mohammed's Cousin
Sheikh Mohammed is Married to sheikha Hind his cousin
Plus Sheikh Maktoum's Grandfather and sheikh Mohammed's Father are cousins they are very much related to each other.